How to Read USDA's Household Food Security Report — Food Insecurity, Very Low Food Security and Survey Notes
USDA ERS (CPS supplement, Dec 2024; excludes group quarters, homeless): 13.7% of U.S. households food insecure in 2024 (18.3 million; Table 1A), vs 13.5% in 2023, not significant.
Key figures (Household Food Security in the United States in 2024, ERR-358)
As of 10 November 2026, 00:39 KST (retrieved by this page at that time); the ERS topic page lists ERR-358 as its annual report: Household Food Security in the United States in 2024 (Economic Research Report ERR-358), USDA Economic Research Service (ERS). Report cover: December 2025; publication page date 12/30/2025; ERS food security topic page Updated: 7/28/2026. Data: the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement (CPS-FSS), collected by the Census Bureau in December 2024, about food security over the previous 12 months. Primary source: https://www.ers.usda.gov/media/9161/err-358.pdf?v=99749[1][2][5]
| Indicator (U.S. households; status over calendar year, survey in December) | Previous: 2023 as first published (ERR-337 report summary [3]) | Current: 2024 (ERR-358 [1], Tables 1A and 1B) | Change vs previous (percentage points or households; this page's calculation) | Change vs year ago: 2023 as printed in ERR-358 Table 1A or text, with ERS significance statement | Evidence type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food insecure (% of households; households) | 13.5% (18.0 million) | 13.7% (18,340 thousand) | +0.2 | 2023: 13.5% (17,956 thousand); not statistically significantly different | ERS ERR-358 [1] for 2024 and its 2023 column; ERR-337 report summary [3] for 2023 as first published |
| Very low food security (% of households; households) | 5.1% (6.8 million) | 5.4% (7,202 thousand) | +0.3 | 2023: 5.1% (6,799 thousand); statistically similar | ERS ERR-358 [1] for 2024 and its 2023 column; ERR-337 report summary [3] for 2023 as first published |
| Food secure (% of households) | 86.5% | 86.3% | -0.2 | 2023: 86.5% (Table 1A) | ERS ERR-358 [1] for 2024 and its 2023 column; ERR-337 report summary [3] for 2023 as first published |
| Food insecurity among children (% of households with children) | 8.9% (3.2 million) | 9.1% (3,313 thousand) | +0.2 | 2023: 8.9%; statistically similar | ERS ERR-358 [1] for 2024 and its 2023 column; ERR-337 report summary [3] for 2023 as first published |
| Very low food security among children (% of households with children) | 1.0% (374,000) | 0.9% (318,000) | -0.1 | 2023: 1.0%; statistically similar | ERS ERR-358 [1] for 2024 and its 2023 column; ERR-337 report summary [3] for 2023 as first published |
| Food insecure, all households with children (%) | not given in the 2023 report summary | 18.4% | not calculable from the 2023 summary | 2023: 17.9%; not statistically significant (text) | ERS ERR-358 [1] for 2024 and its 2023 column; ERR-337 report summary [3] for 2023 as first published |
| Households completing the Food Security Supplement (count) | 30,863 | 32,719 | +1,856 | 2023 count not printed in ERR-358 text | ERS ERR-358 [1] for 2024 and its 2023 column; ERR-337 report summary [3] for 2023 as first published |
Comparison basis: percentages of households, rounded to one decimal as printed; counts in thousands from Table 1A, while the 2023 report summary rounds counts to millions. Differences are tested at the 90-percent confidence level. The year-ago column uses the 2023 values printed in the 2024 report; they match the first-published 2023 percentages. Households whose food security status is unknown are excluded: "In 2024, these exclusions represented 311,000 households (0.2 percent of all households)."[1][3]
In three lines
1. 13.7% of U.S. households (18,340 thousand) were food insecure at some time in 2024, not significantly different from 13.5% in 2023 (Table 1A).
2. 5.4% (7,202 thousand) had very low food security, statistically similar to 5.1% in 2023.
3. 47.9 million people, 14.4% of the civilian noninstitutionalized population, lived in food-insecure households.[1][2]
What the survey measures
Survey and population. "The CPS includes about 50,000 households each year and is representative of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States at State and national levels." In December 2024, 41,636 households completed the monthly CPS and 32,719 of them completed the Food Security Supplement, 78.6 percent. Footnote 3 says: "The food security survey was conducted December 8–18, 2024." Footnote 4 adds: "The CPS-FSS excludes persons living in group quarters, such as military barracks, and, therefore, only captures a subsample of active-duty military service members."[1]
Nonresponse and a new weighting step. "Supplement nonresponse was lower in 2024 (21.4 percent) than in 2023 (26.1 percent), 2022 (23.6 percent), 2021 (29.4 percent), and 2020 (24.2 percent)." Footnote 7 says: "The 2024 Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement (CPS-FSS) weighting process implemented a new noninterview adjustment procedure that uses geographic, demographic, and socio-economic data to create a logistic regression model that predicts response likelihood." "Previous years of the CPS-FSS used basic CPS noninterview clusters, which are based on metropolitan status, to adjust for nonresponse." The report states the 2024 weights were built differently from earlier years; it does not quantify the effect on the 2023 to 2024 comparison.[1]
Households, not persons. Food security status is assigned to the whole household from the number of food-insecure conditions reported by one adult respondent. "In 2024, 47.9 million people lived in food-insecure households (table 1a, middle panel)." The report describes these people as living in food-insecure households, since members may be affected differently.[1]
No causes in the report. The report summary says: "This report does not provide an analysis of the factors that determine the prevalence of or trends in food insecurity."[1][2]
Reading in pairs
Higher, but not significantly higher. The report says: "The prevalence of food insecurity in households with children was higher in 2024 (18.4 percent) than in 2022 (17.3 percent) and 2023 (17.9 percent), a difference that is not statistically significant (figure 4; table 1b)." The word higher refers to the point estimates; the 2023 to 2024 change in this rate was not statistically significant.[1]
Three printed years for the survey window. Footnote 3 prints the survey dates as December 8–18, 2024. The section on frequency of food insecurity prints: "Analyses of additional information collected in the food security survey on how frequently various food-insecure conditions occurred during the year, whether they occurred during the 30 days before the survey (conducted December 8–18, 2025), and, if so, for how many days, provide insight into the frequency and duration of food insecurity in U.S. households." The SNAP section prints the 30 days before the survey as mid-November to mid-December 2023. The intended years in the frequency and SNAP passages are not established by the report.[1]
5.9 percent or 7.4 percent excluded from spending. The spending methods say: "About 5.9 percent of households interviewed in the CPS-FSS did not respond to the food-spending questions (or reported zero usual food spending) and were excluded from the analysis." The notes to Tables 6 and 7 say: "These exclusions represented 7.4 percent of all households." One share is of households interviewed and the other of all households; the report does not reconcile the two, so the reason for the gap is not established.[1]
Overall unchanged, some groups changed. "The prevalence of household food insecurity in 2024 was not statistically significantly different from the prevalence in 2023 for any of the populations considered in this report (figure 5)." For very low food security, Figure 6 shows two significant increases: "Very low food security increased for households with a Black, non-Hispanic reference person (from 8.7 percent to 10.5 percent) and households with incomes at or above 185 percent of the poverty line (from 2.6 percent to 3.0 percent)."[1]
State figures are 3-year averages. "State-level estimates were obtained by averaging 3 years of data (2022–2024) to generate large enough sample sizes for each State to produce reliable estimates and detect differences across States." "Estimated prevalence rates of food insecurity during this 3-year period ranged from 9.0 percent in North Dakota to 19.4 percent in Arkansas; estimated prevalence rates of very low food security ranged from 3.4 percent in South Dakota to 9.0 percent in Kentucky (table 4)." These 3-year State averages should not be compared directly with the single-year 2024 national rate of 13.7 percent; Table 4 gives a matching 2022–2024 national average of 13.3 percent. The report cautions: "The margin of error for State food insecurity rates should be considered when interpreting these statistics, especially when comparing prevalence rates across States."[1]
Food spending and assistance programs
Spending. "In 2024, the typical U.S. household spent $75.00 per person per week for food (table 6)." The median ratio of food spending to the cost of the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) was 1.18 for food-secure households and 1.06 for food-insecure households (Table 7), which the report expresses as 11 percent more (1.18 ÷ 1.06 = 1.11). "Because of this TFP change, estimates of household spending relative to the cost of the TFP for 2024 shown here are comparable with 2021–23 estimates but are not comparable with years before 2021."[1]
Programs. During the month before the 2024 survey, about 58.9 percent of food-insecure households took part in at least one of SNAP, WIC or the National School Lunch Program (abstract). Participation is reported alongside food security status; the report does not estimate program effects.[1]
Homeless people are not counted. The CPS is a household survey, and the report says of its frequency statistics: "The omission of homeless families and individuals from these frequency statistics biases the statistics downward, and the bias may be substantial relative to the estimates, especially for the most severe conditions."[1]
Dates and next release
Dates kept apart. ERR-358: cover December 2025, publication page 12/30/2025; survey December 8–18, 2024 (footnote 3). ERR-337 (previous edition, 2023 data): report summary dated September 2024, publication page 9/4/2024. The ERS topic page shows Updated: 7/28/2026; that is a page update, not a new report.[1][2][3][4][5]
Next release. The report, its publication page and the ERS topic page do not give a date for the report on 2025 food security, so the next release date is not established.[1][2][5]
Verified facts
Each fact is labelled with its evidence typeEach fact in this section carries its evidence type — either cross-checked against independent sources, or confirmed from a single authoritative record.
In 2024, 13.7 percent of U.S. households, 18,340 thousand, were food insecure at some time during the year, according to ERS report ERR-358.[1][2] 1 source · authoritative record
In 2024, 5.4 percent of U.S. households, 7,202 thousand, had very low food security.[1][2] 1 source · authoritative record
The 2024 Food Security Supplement was completed by 32,719 households, 78.6 percent of the 41,636 households that completed the December 2024 CPS.[1] 1 source · authoritative record
ERR-358 prints the survey window as December 8–18, 2024 in footnote 3 and as December 8–18, 2025 in its section on the frequency of food insecurity, and the SNAP 30-day window as mid-November to mid-December 2023.[1] 1 source · authoritative record
As first published in ERR-337, 13.5 percent of U.S. households were food insecure in 2023 and 5.1 percent had very low food security.[3][4] 1 source · authoritative record
Statements and readings
Not counted as facts — each item shows what kind of statement it isFrom here on: statements not counted as facts — single-source reports, the issuing body’s own statements, and this page’s own readings, each labeled.
Spending exclusions are given as 5.9 percent of households interviewed and as 7.4 percent of all households; the report does not reconcile the two shares.[1] Stated by the issuing body itself (primary source) · not independently verified · inference from comparing the spending methods with the notes to Tables 6 and 7 of ERR-358
Food-insecure households numbered 384 thousand more in 2024 than in 2023 (18,340 against 17,956 thousand), a change ERS does not find statistically significant in the rate.[1] Stated by the issuing body itself (primary source) · not independently verified · inference from subtracting Table 1A rows of ERR-358
Timeline
What this page could not establish
These are questions this page tried to answer and could not. The gaps are left open rather than filled with a guess.- When will the report on 2025 food security be published?
- Which years are intended in the frequency and SNAP passages of ERR-358?
- Model
- claude-opus-5
- Time
- 11/10/2026, 00:38
- Body characters
- 10,203
- Sources
- 5 sources adopted
- Model
- ChatGPT (checked sources on the web)
- Time
- 11/10/2026, 01:03
- Verdict
- Revision required
Show revision history (3)
| 11/10/2026, 09:00 | First authored (claude-opus-5) | Created |
| 11/10/2026 | First version. Read in full ERR-358 (54 pages), its publication page, the ERR-337 report summary (2 pages), its publication page and the ERS topic page; quotations are complete sentences matched against the source text of the edition named. | Updated |
| 11/10/2026 | Revised after review: the State averages are flagged as not directly comparable with the single-year national rate and set against the 2022–2024 national average of 13.3 percent in Table 4; the State FAQ gives Arkansas as the highest point estimate and quotes the margin-of-error caution; the three printed survey years are stated as facts with only the intended years left not established; the as-of line says the ERS topic page lists ERR-358 as its annual report. | Updated |
Frequently asked
How many U.S. households were food insecure in 2024?
13.7%, or 18,340 thousand households, at some time during 2024 (ERR-358, Table 1A). The rate was not significantly different from 13.5% in 2023.[1]
What is very low food security?
5.4% of households in 2024 were in this more severe range, where some members ate less and normal eating patterns were disrupted at times because of limited money or other resources for food.[1][2]
Does the survey count people or households?
Households: 32,719 completed the 2024 supplement, and each household gets one status. ERS also reports 47.9 million people living in food-insecure households.[1]
Are homeless people included?
No: the CPS samples about 50,000 households a year, and the report says homeless families and individuals are omitted from its frequency statistics. People in group quarters such as military barracks are also excluded.[1]
Which State had the highest estimated rate in the 2022–2024 averages?
Arkansas had the highest point estimate, 19.4% averaged over 2022 to 2024 (Table 4), and North Dakota the lowest, 9.0%. The report cautions: "The margin of error for State food insecurity rates should be considered when interpreting these statistics, especially when comparing prevalence rates across States."[1]
Did food insecurity rise for households with children?
18.4% in 2024 against 17.9% in 2023, a difference ERS says is not statistically significant. Children themselves were food insecure in 9.1% of households with children.[1]
How much did households spend on food?
$75.00 per person per week for the typical household in 2024 (Table 6). Spending relative to the Thrifty Food Plan is comparable only with 2021 to 2023.[1]
Official links
- Official USDA ERS — Food Security in the U.S.
Sources
- [1] Household Food Security in the United States in 2024 (Economic Research Report ERR-358), full report PDF primary
- [2] Household Food Security in the United States in 2024 (ERS publication page, ERR-358) primary
- [3] Household Food Security in the United States in 2023 (ERR-337), report summary PDF primary
- [4] Household Food Security in the United States in 2023 (ERS publication page, ERR-337) primary
- [5] Food Security in the U.S. (ERS topic page) primary